Conventionally, for example, a library apparatus is used for a housing apparatus for housing a plurality of housed objects. The library apparatus is utilized as a backup location or an archive location for data, and houses in cells a plurality of cartridges, etc. with magnetic recording tapes built-in. Such a library apparatus has an internal arrangement configuration with cartridges horizontally placed, stacked in a plurality of steps in the height direction, and arranged in a plurality of rows in the depth direction of the library apparatus, or with cartridges longitudinally placed and arranged in a plurality of rows. When data is written on or read from a magnetic recording tape, a cartridge is taken out from a cell and carried and inserted into a specified drive device by using a robot. When a process in the drive device is terminated, the cartridge is ejected from the drive device and returned to the original cell by the robot.
When a housed object such as a cartridge is carried, the operation of the robot, i.e., a carrying unit is complicated depending on the increase in the number of objects housed in the library apparatus.
For such carriage of a housed object, it is known to carry the housed object with a rotating rack (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 01-135438), to rotate and move a housing cell with a cartridge housed to a driving apparatus (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 07-130072), to rotate a cartridge access station along with a cell drum for delivery to an accessor (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 08-127402), etc.
Such taking out and carriage of cartridges arranged and housed in a plurality of steps and a plurality of rows necessitates a robot requiring multi-system operation, for example. This robot performs, for example, the movement in the height direction, the movement in the depth direction, a rotating operation, the movement in the backward and forward direction within handling of the robot, and the opening/closing operation of a claw unit of the handling.
The library apparatus uses a size of a drive device, i.e., a carriage destination, as a reference and the size in the height direction is determined based on the reference. The number of cartridges capable of being housed varies depending on the arrangement configuration within the apparatus. Therefore, as compared to a conventional carrying robot, it is more difficult to increase the cartridge housing efficiency in the arrangement configuration requiring the multi-system operation since an operation space of the robot is needed to be ensured and a waste space inaccessible to the robot may be generated depending on the cartridge arrangement configuration. Such a robot performing the multi-system operation requires complicated configuration and control since a motor, etc., are needed for a driving unit for each of operational systems.
Such requests and problems are not disclosed or suggested, and the solving configuration thereof, etc. is not disclosed or suggested in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 01-135438, 07-130072, and 08-127402.